The first time that Derek Craven and Sara Fielding make love in Dreaming of You is the best that I've ever read. He is experienced and jaded but he is so careful and sweetly passionate with Sara. Everytime I read that scene , I sit and sigh. Just lovely. _________________Behind every successful man is a surprised woman.

I'm not even sure it was a romance novel. It was the final volume in a series of books about horses that was in our school library. I don't know the title or author, although I have looked. Not Flicka; not the Black Stallion; not anything that's still around in the stores.

I was in 7th or 8th grade, so it was about 1952 or 1953. Toward the end, there was a scene in which the young hero and heroine were lying on a picnic blanket, having declared their mutual love and moving for the first time beyond polite kisses. As they embraced, she reached over and traced the shape of his eyebrows with the tip of her finger.

Somehow it still seems more realistic to me than a lot of the "bastard child of Lady Chatterley's Lover" sex scenes we now read.

I'm not even sure it was a romance novel. It was the final volume in a series of books about horses that was in our school library. I don't know the title or author, although I have looked. Not Flicka; not the Black Stallion; not anything that's still around in the stores.

I was in 7th or 8th grade, so it was about 1952 or 1953. Toward the end, there was a scene in which the young hero and heroine were lying on a picnic blanket, having declared their mutual love and moving for the first time beyond polite kisses. As they embraced, she reached over and traced the shape of his eyebrows with the tip of her finger.

Somehow it still seems more realistic to me than a lot of the "bastard child of Lady Chatterley's Lover" sex scenes we now read.

You know, that does sound a LOT like Green Grass of Wyoming which is the last of Mary O'Hara's Flicka books, Virginia. Are you sure it isn't that after all? I can't check right now. We're mid re-build, living in the shed and most of my books are boxed. I do remember a very similar scene between Ken and Carey. Then later on she faces down her overbearing grandmother.

Green Grass of Wyoming does sound awfully familiar as a title. I'll have to look at it again, if I can locate a copy.

I can definitely say that it made a lasting impression on me.

Virginia

Elizabeth Rolls wrote:

veasleyd1 wrote:

I'm not even sure it was a romance novel. It was the final volume in a series of books about horses that was in our school library. I don't know the title or author, although I have looked. Not Flicka; not the Black Stallion; not anything that's still around in the stores.

I was in 7th or 8th grade, so it was about 1952 or 1953. Toward the end, there was a scene in which the young hero and heroine were lying on a picnic blanket, having declared their mutual love and moving for the first time beyond polite kisses. As they embraced, she reached over and traced the shape of his eyebrows with the tip of her finger.

Somehow it still seems more realistic to me than a lot of the "bastard child of Lady Chatterley's Lover" sex scenes we now read.

You know, that does sound a LOT like Green Grass of Wyoming which is the last of Mary O'Hara's Flicka books, Virginia. Are you sure it isn't that after all? I can't check right now. We're mid re-build, living in the shed and most of my books are boxed. I do remember a very similar scene between Ken and Carey. Then later on she faces down her overbearing grandmother.

Green Grass of Wyoming does sound awfully familiar as a title. I'll have to look at it again, if I can locate a copy.

I can definitely say that it made a lasting impression on me.

Virginia

There were three actual books in the Flicka series. My Friend Flicka, Thunderhead, and Green Grass of Wyoming. At some point one paperback publisher put Flicka out in two volumes and Thunderhead and GGW out in three volumes each. All up I think the books cover a span of about 8 years. The hero, Ken, who owns Flicka and Thunderhead, is about 10 in MMF and leaving school by the end of GGW. I loved those books as a kid and the scene I think you are remembering made a huge impression on me, too.

I find that in a lot of books I love it's not the lovemaking scenes but the anticipation of it, the buildup is what I remember the most (e.g. Robin Schone's The Lady's Tutor is a perfect example of the sexual tension).

Yet, if I have to name the books with my favourite lovemaking scenes, here they are:

1. Cry No More - the h and H agree they'll have sex when they are out of danger (which is in a few hours) and it's quite unusual for a romance to have that but it was so well done - all this buildup and the love scene itself!

These are from books on the tame/very subtle side but I thought the love scenes were very beautiful.

The Emerald Necklace by Diana Brown - in the middle of the book.

My One and Only by Kristan Higgins - their first. I had read The Catch of the Day before by e same author and while I loved that book too, my one complaint was a fade-to-black love scene between the h/H and no reference to it whatsoever afterwards which, for me in a contemporary novel is just wrong. In My One and Only it was very subtle but still very satisfying.

Also in one of my favourite romances - Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas - I loved all love scenes (or sex scenes) but my favourite was the third one (if we don't count flashbacks).